The event is free and open to the public and also will be available via live streaming on Loyola’s website.

The forum will feature special guests, including filmmaker Royce Osborn of the downtown Skeletons and musician Bruce Sunpie Barnes of the Northside Skull and Bones Gang. Also in attendance will be Millisia White, a representative of the New Orleans Society of Dance who is co-producing the upcoming Louisiana State Museum exhibit “They Call Me Baby Doll: One Hundred Years of a Masking Tradition and Way of Life” on display in the Presbytere this month.

Gabour and guests, many of whom will be in full Carnival garb, will discuss the past, present and future of the underground tribes and how the skull and bones clubs fit into the neighborhood carnival tradition. They will also pay tribute to the late, legendary Big Chief Al Morris of the Skull and Bones Gang and screen film clips of several tribes, including footage of the tribes parading on Super Sunday 2008 and excerpts from Osborn’s “All on Mardi Gras Day.”

Court to hear casesat Dillard University

New Orleans — In honor of Black History Month, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal will hold court at Dillard University to hear oral arguments on five pending cases Wednesday.

The session is part of an ongoing effort to educate students and the public about the work of the appellate court. The session will convene at 10 a.m. in the Justice Revius O. Ortique Jr. Mock Trial Center. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal Judges Dennis Bagneris, Terri Love and Madeleine Landrieu will hear the oral arguments.

Students and the public are invited to attend. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal previously held court at Dillard University in February 2011.

LSUSHC professor receives honor

New Orleans — Kim Edward LeBlanc, professor of orthopedics who heads family medicine and rural education at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, is one of 10 recipients of the 2012 Robert Raszkowski, MD, PhD, ACCME Hero Award.

Presented by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, the award honors extraordinary commitment and generosity of time and expertise in enabling the council to fulfill its mission of setting standards for quality continuing medical education and assuring that accredited providers meet those standards.

LeBlanc, the only recipient from Louisiana, has worked with the Accreditation Council of Continuing Medical Education since 2001, serving on its board of directors since 2010.

Loyola holds MBA open houses

New Orleans — The MBA program at Loyola University New Orleans College of Business will showcase its recently revised MBA program in four open houses and information sessions this spring.

Open houses begin at 6 p.m. in Miller Hall, Room 112, on Loyola’s main campus, starting Tuesday and March 12, April 9 and May 7.

Registration for the open house is recommended but not required. Loyola’s MBA $50 application fee will be waived for any open house attendee.

Loyola professor receives award

New Orleans — William P. Quigley, professor and director of the Stuart H. Smith Law Clinic and Center for Social Justice at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, was honored for his work in several voting rights cases around the state.

Quigley received the Emmitt J. Douglas Memorial Award from the Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP at Southern University Law School in Baton Rouge Jan. 26. The award is the highest internal honor given to NAACP members within Louisiana.

Quigley was part of several legal teams that have been counsel in voting rights challenges for the reapportioning of voting boundaries throughout the state, including Orleans, Plaquemines, East Carroll, East Feliciana, St. Tammany, Pointe Coupee, Madison and Washington Parishes.

The challenges cover voting in the U.S. Congress, the Louisiana Supreme Court, the Louisiana Senate and the Louisiana House of Representatives.

Brokaw to speak at Loyola’s graduation

New Orleans — Tom Brokaw, television journalist and long-time anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” will address Loyola University New Orleans’ Class of 2013 during its spring commencement ceremony on May 11 in the Mercedes- Benz Superdome.

Brokaw will receive an honorary degree during the ceremony along with legendary jazz vocalist Germaine Bazzle and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and now New York Times managing editor Dean Baquet. Loyola’s College of Law commencement will feature Mary Matalin and James Carville as the keynote speakers.

The undergraduate and graduate ceremony begins at 9:45 a.m., and the College of Law ceremony starts at 5:45 p.m.